


Even selkies like to look at fish in big tanks

by DraniKitty



Series: Short stories from the Garbage Court [5]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Aquariums
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 13:28:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4480994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DraniKitty/pseuds/DraniKitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been a long day, sometimes all you want to do is visit an aquarium and relax.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even selkies like to look at fish in big tanks

Trott sat pouring over various forms and papers, the work taking up the entirety of the kitchen table. One elbow was on the table, hand threaded through his hair, while the other hand tapped a pen on the table's surface. The numbers on the forms had started to blur together, and he was sure it wasn't eye strain. Letting out a long sigh, Trott sat back, putting the pen down and sliding his hands over his face and under his glasses.

The front door unlocked with a click, making Trott turn and look as the door opened. He wasn't entirely surprised to see Will walk in, dropping his bag by the door. "Welcome home, sunshine. Rough day?"

"You wouldn't believe it..." Will trudged into the kitchen, opening the fridge to dig around in it. "I swear college is worse than high school in expecting you to devote ALL your time on homework from a single class and ignore the others!" He took a seat, pressing a cold beer bottle to his forehead. "Why can't professors and teachers talk to each other and NOT crush us under it all?"

"They do think they're preparing you for life with that, don't they?" Trott folded his glasses, setting them down on the table. "But we both know they're wrong. Come on, put that away." He got up, stretching. "You need some time to relax, I could use some time away from this mess."

For the first time since walking in, Will noticed the papers. "Is this all for your business?" He picked one of the many papers up. It was some sort of tax form, a jumbled mess for his school-addled brain. He put it back down, rising to return the bottle to the fridge. "I'm starting to worry that's what MY future's going to look like..." Hunched over a table, tapping or chewing a pen, staring at endless forms... When he really thought about it, though, he knew it was a part of business, something he'd be unable to avoid if he ever got his own company started.

Trott pulled on his shoes, watching Will. "Of course... There is truly evil in this world, and it's a three-letter curse word called tax." He grabbed his coat, motioning to Will. "Come on, I know just where to go." He held the door as Will walked through, then followed behind him.

\--

As they stepped off the bus, Will stared up at the aquarium entrance. "The aquarium?" He looked at Trott, one eyebrow up. "Somehow I thought this would be the last place you'd want to go."

Trott shrugged, paying the clerk before walking in. "Bit of the old life without having to actually go places I'd rather not be, face things I don't want to look back at..." He stopped, staring up at a tank filled with exotic fish. None of them were native to this part of the world, far too bright and colorful from waters far too warm. They swam around, some darting in and out of crevices and gaps in the constructed rock formations. "None of these know what it's like to be out there..."

Will looked through the glass at them, gently pressing his palm to it. A striped surgeon fish went darting by, before hiding in a hole. "Never knowing a life without us staring at them.."

He let out a laugh. "Without people like YOU staring at him. People like ME would be staring at them still... With a whole other purpose than this." He walked on, passing through an archway into a glass tunnel. Sharks swam lazily above them, all teeth and menace. A turtle also passed over, unconcerned with his neighbors. Trott watched them, hands in his pockets.

"What about these guys? Think any of them know life outside a tank?"

He looked over at Will, considering the question, then looked back as a black tipped reef shark swam up, turning at the last minute to glide its underside over the glass. There were multiple exclamations from children and adults alike around them. "The older ones, probably. Endless expanses of ocean before them, endless sands below them, endless skies above..." He pulled his hands out of his pockets, crossing his arms. "But then you have to wonder, do they miss the aspect of having to swim for miles a day in hopes of some small fish to nibble on, or the rare find of a much larger meal?"

Will started to ask if Trott was speaking of himself or the sharks, but he found the selkie was already down the glass tunnel. He trailed after, finding him staring into a tank full of drifting jelly fish. "What about these guys?"

Trott reached up, tapping the glass. True to their nature, there was no response from the creatures. "Right pain in the ass... Literally. Nothing relieves a jellyfish sting out in the ocean." He continued on, stopping to look at an octopus. The plate next to it said Giant Pacific Octopus, but this one had to be quite young still. "But this guy... Crafty, octopuses..."

"I think the plural's octopi."

"You say poe-tay-toe, I say poe-tah-toe."

"Whatever," Will snorted, a grin on his face. "So, what's crafty about octopi?"

Trott bent over, staring at the cephalopod. It stared right back, unblinking as most denizens of the deep tended to be. "He's probably fully aware that this isn't where he's meant to be, but he doesn't care."

"So, if I'm thinking this right... You're like the sharks, and Ross is like this octopus." He bent over as well, staring. When he looked over, he saw a curious look on Trott's face. "What?"

He gave an impassive shrug, standing back up. "Suppose that's a good comparison.. But it has me wondering something..." He turned around, looking at all the tanks around them. "Which one is you, and which one's Sips?"

"What about Smith?"

Trott scoffed. "Smith is a creature all his own. But probably the jellyfish." A right pain in his ass, at times... And a bit mindless at others...

Will laughed beside him, then looked around. He wandered over to a shallow pool full of small rays and crabs that people could reach in and touch. Arms crossed on the side, he watched a skate swim past. When it returned, he reached a hand in, feeling the slick skin under his finger tips. It predictably darted away, not keen on the fingers of thousands of people brushing over it. He chuckled, watching it dart along, fingers still dangling in the water.

Wandering over and looking in, Trott crossed his own arms on the wide lip of the pool, watching the creatures dart about. "I stand corrected." He pointed at the skate as it darted past again. "THAT is Smith. Not happy in here in the least, confined where it's not meant to be..." He reached in, dipping his fingers. The skate stopped as it neared, before nudging under Trott's fingers. "And like Smith, it only wants to be touched on its terms. Though skates and rays have much tighter terms than Smith does." He removed his hand, watching the skate dart off.

Will watched beside him. "That skate just came right up to you... Like a dog!" Other people had noticed, and some were trying the same tactic now. Some were more successful than others as the skates grew curious. Human eagerness took over, though, and the skates were soon back to darting around.

Trott stepped back, shaking drops of water off his fingers with a smile. "Just a bit of skill not so easily forgotten..." He held his hands up. "No magic to it, either. Promise."

Through another section of tanks, they happened upon a tank full of tiny seahorses. They clung precariously to the plants of the small world they inhabited, tiny eyes darting here and there. Some of the braver ones swam around, inspecting their neighbors before carrying on. At the bottom of the tank, small crabs darted around, picking up bits of food in the sand at the bottom. Neither Will nor Trott could tell if it was real sand or artificial. The crabs and seahorses didn't seem to care either way.

One of the last tanks of the ocean creatures section of the aquarium was another massive tank, filled with more coral-living denizens. The fish were still flashy and bright, but they were still distinctly different, not more of the same. An eel darted out of one hole and into another, drawing gasps from many of those watching.

Trott pointed at it, grinning just a bit. "There you are. You're an eel." He looked at Will, his grin only growing.

Will stuck his tongue out. "I am NOT an eel!"

"Okay, technically not an EEL..." He motioned down the last hall, full of tanks of non-ocean aquatic life. "The electric eel. Capable of giving a shock up to 600 volts. I'm not sure they still have on here, though. The one they had was quite old last I visited."

"It's called an electric eel, how is it not an eel?"

"Well, technically it's a knife fish." He walked into the last hall, pausing to look past a rail and into a tank full of small fish. A worker dropped food in, and they swarmed on it, tearing it to shreds and nothing. Beside him, Will visibly cringed. "Yeah, vicious little things... Take a good look, that's what the business world's like, sunshine." He turned away, walking over to a tank that, on their side, went floor to ceiling, but on the other extended further in both directions. In it, giant cousins of the piranha lazily swam around in the recreated tree roots and jungle temple stones.

Will stared in at the giant pacu, calm and peaceful, a drastic difference from their more vicious cousins. "That's gotta be Sips."

Trott let out a laugh. "It is, isn't it? Or maybe that." He pointed to an Arapaima floating almost as lazily. They shared a laugh, continuing on.

They soon left the aquarium, both much more relaxed than they had been when they arrived.

**Author's Note:**

> Some of the creatures referenced can be found at many aquariums, but the one I was keeping in mind while writing this was the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. The only exact fish you can't find there is the electric eel.


End file.
